Burma　
What international community (including Japan) should do for the survivors suffering from Cyclone Nargis.
　　　　Before the Opening of the donor pledging conference May 25th

Human Rights Now

Cyclone Nargis caused huge devastation and human causality in Burma. While Burma’s military regime( the SPDC) was reluctant to accept numerous offers of aid from international community, many did not receive necessary aid.　Under growing concern from the international community, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon entered Burma on May 22th, and a joint fundraising conference between the UN and ASEAN is slated for the 25th. According to Mr. Ban, SPDC has agreed to allow "all aid workers" into the country to help cyclone survivors. He said it is Given the situation, Human Rights Now, a Japan-based NGO for the promotion of international human rights, is compelled to issue the following statement asking Japan and other donor countries to resolve this devastating situation
1 The Burmese government has not fulfilled its responsibility to help survivors since the Cyclone hit. Instead it pushed a national referendum aimed at cementing its power, which has made the situation worse.
In his latest remarks, UN Secretary General Ban, Ki-moon expressed his concern that only 25% of the survivors in need have received aid. Even now, many survivors suffer life-threatening conditions without aid.

2 Although the government’s initial response was to flatly refuse external assistance, they finally yielded and agreed to allow foreign aid and aid workers into their borders. However, they severely restrict entrance of aid and accept aid workers only from a limited number of international organizations and only from some ASEAN countries. Human aid from Japan and Western countries has been closed down. A general lack of transparency permeates the relief process, and donors are unsure whether their aid is reaching its intended recipients.

3 A vast quantity of aid has been proffered by donors from across the world, but only a fraction of this has actually been administered to the suffering citizens. UN’s Spokesman Montus expressed concerns that international aid might be used by the government for purposes other than helping survivors. Much of the aid is poised on Burma’s borders, awaiting government acceptance. The UN World Food Program revealed that the government has impounded 38 tons of food for the survivors (amounting to biscuits for 95,000 people) and the embargo cannot be lifted due to restriction set by Yangon airport officials. Some report that the army is plundering the aid and a citizen witnessed people selling it on the black market.
As for relief workers, the government accepts assistance only from neighboring countries, such as Thailand and Bangladesh, and staff from international organizations. They have yet to receive relief workers from Japan and Western countries. The possibility of epidemics compels us to declare the insufficiency of levels of relief workers and medical aid workers.

4 Given the severity of the situation, Japan and the international community must act decisively to save the lives of suffering Burmese citizens. However “blank check relief” to Burma at this time is inefficient and irresponsible, and would strengthen a repressive regime, encourage corruption and cause further human rights violations.
Therefore, the Japanese government and the international community should strongly demand that the SPDC accept all necessary external relief and establish a transparent monitoring system, in addition to demanding the immediate acceptance of human aid (including medical and humanitarian aid) at the upcoming donor pledging conference.

Also, in the case of aid for infrastructures, the donor community (including Japan) must ensure that any aid given to Burma is not used to undermine the protection of human rights by facilitating forced labor forced relocation, or other such human rights violations which have been commonplace under the SPDC’s past infrastructure building initiatives. The donor community (including Japan) must only supply aid for infrastructure rebuilding on the express condition that the SPDC will not commit human rights violations. A monitoring mechanism should be established to ensure that entire rebuilding process is free from forced labor practices.

Human Rights Now expects the upcoming fundraising conference to be important turning point to change the situation after the today’s important announcement regarding human aid, and urges that the donor community (including Japan) demand SPDC to accept the following points to ensure save survivors, establish transparency, and secure human rights. Especially, we urge Japanese government to take a leading role in the conference together with the UN in order to resolve the present situation.

1 The donor countries should admonish the SPDC for giving priority to the political referendum over the more pressing needs of the cyclone survivors, even as they suffer and die, and urge SPDC to consider saving survivors their first priority

2 Given the fact that the SPDC is plundering aid and allowing it to sit idly in the airport, the donor countries should urge the government to establish a direct route from donors to the suffering citizens and to accept foreign aid unconditionally and quickly, in addition to taking action against embezzling and monopolization by SPDC officials.

3 In order to prevent and minimize the spread of epidemics, the donor countries should urge the SPDC to accept urgent medical teams from foreign countries. Given the extent of the damage, the donor countries should urge the government to accept all necessary workers from Japan and Western countries and not limit workers to Burma-friendly countries and ensure their all necessary activities.

4 The donor countries should urge the SPDC to pledge to renounce human rights infringements such as forced labor and to accept contingencies from donor countries for verification and monitoring.

5 The donor countries should urge the SPDC to pledge that human aid workers can work freely inside Burma.

6 The donor countries should urge the SPDC to accept a monitoring team in order to ensure the fairness and transparency of the relief process..